The Good and the Beautiful School!

 February was a huge month for us in our homeschooling journey.  I have written about it other places, so I will just say that M's last day of virtual school was February 9th and his first day of homeschool was February 10th.  I know it was 100% the right choice.  It is the best option for us in this season.  Hopefully both kids will both be back at their awesome schools in the fall.  In the meantime we are making the most of our season of homeschool. 

Our ELA curriculum is called "The Good and The Beautiful" and I  love it. I highly recommend this beautiful and challenging curriculum.  It is fun, engaging, and targets many different learning modes.  I am so thankful to have discovered it and not surprised at all to learn many of my friends also use it.  It truly is such a gift to the homeschool community.  If we ever have another season of homeschooling I will also use it for History.  

T had an Amish unit in her ELA curriculum.  She followed a recipe in the curriculum and made shoofly muffins.  They are called shoofly muffins because they are sweet and flies had to be shooed from them, not because the are made of flies.  I had to convince M of this before he would try them!

 

The cutest baker I know!

 

 

M: They tasted pretty good!

M's first days were spent totally in his room.  He has transitioned downstairs as the weeks have gone on!

 

 

T still does most of her work in the kitchen.

 

Both of the kids learned about the Oregon Trail in History.  Brandon and I were describing the old computer game to them at dinner one night, and he decided to search for it and found a way to play online.  It looked just like the game we grew up with.  He played it during an entire family movie night.  He played one round for 3 hours and every person died!

The following day the kids and I were out sledding, and he played the whole game in less than an hour and no one died.  I guess he needed to prove he could still do it! 

 

 

This screen takes me right back!

Great job!!!

 

T: I wanted to give it a try during my screen time.

In February T developed a new art technique.  She colored a picture with marker then dipped a kabob stick in water and used it to paint over the marker.  This would smear the marker in the coolest way.  I was very impressed.  She is more of an art teacher than me.  It is so much fun to just watch her create!

 

Just beautiful!

 

 

 

Speaking of T being an art teacher... I came downstairs one morning to this creative scene!

Homeschooling does not make trauma disappear or lessen... BUT there are some sweet moments.  I am so very thankful that Brandon captured this moment of pure joy.  I happen to have been so cold that I was wearing my robe.  M had just showered and was already in PJ's.  We just received a box from The Good and the Beautiful and we were checking out the Geography cards.  We were all truly enjoying them.   They are a wonderful resource that I will use for the kids no matter our schooling choice.  Since February M has learned all the states and capitals and the state locations! 

My favorite picture of the year! (Not staged)

 

 

Another day after my shower... I discovered a roller rink in our basement! 

Another morning she was busy at work on her new sketchpad thing.

 

Geography and cuddles in the living room!  

The kids have a logic time in school where they play some thinking games.  I taught them how to play Free Cell without a computer.  It was so much fun to teach them two retro computer games in one week.  Like Brandon with Oregon Trail, I needed to play a few rounds of this game to get it out of my system.

 

T: I am just learning, but I am already really good!